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Alison Nguyen
history as hypnosis V03

May 30 – July 6, 2024




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A speculative road film that unfolds through cultural memory of the US war in Vietnam, the work follows three women, recently reprogrammed by an artificial intelligence that has wiped all traces of their previous lives, as they journey through an uncanny desert landscape to a nearby metropolis. In Nguyen’s hands, these figures without memory or history become a cinematic use case for themes of alienation, assimilation, and refusal. Freely combining genre, fact, and fiction, the film draws on its Southern California locations’ postmodern glass facades, mimetic architecture, and roadside infrastructure—markers of car culture’s entanglement with American expansionism and cinema history alike—to uncover the more ineffable links between collective consciousness and the Cold War military-industrial complex. Nguyen’s first major live-action project (in which she also appears) underlines recurring themes in her work, which spans film, new media, installation, sculpture, printmaking, and writing. For the artist, embodied performance bridges research and lived experience, and is also a means to engage with emergent technologies.

- Sophie Cavoulacos, Associate Curator. Dept of Film, MoMA

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'history as hypnosis' was produced with generous support from New York Foundation for the Arts’ Artist Fellowship in Film/Video, NYSCA’s Wave Farm MAAF Grant, MIT List Visual Arts Center, and film production company, Rug & Vase.

Flyer Design by Wes Adams 
Film produced by Rug and Vase 

Alison Nguyen is a New York-based artist whose work spans video, installation, performance, and sculpture. Her practice combines the particulars of the personal with an exploration into broader forces of history, particularly those entwined with technology. Her work has been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, MIT List Center for Visual Arts, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, Vienna Secession, The Everson Museum, e-flux, The International Studio & Curatorial Program, op.cit., Signs and Symbols, KAJE, Ann Arbor Film Festival, International Film Festival Oberhausen, Channels Festival International Biennial of Video Art, True/False Film Festival, and Microscope Gallery. Nguyen received her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and her BA in Literary Arts from Brown University. She is a 2023–2024 artist in the Whitney Independent Studies Program.


Film Stills


Alison Nguyen, 2023, history as hypnosis, single-channel video, color, sound, 29 minutes 50 seconds. Produced by Rug and Vase.


Select  Install Photos

Photos by Zak Kelley & Joshua Schaedel



Alison Nguyen, history as hauntology V.01, 2023, severed Seville, casters, dirt, electronic parts, LED lights, 109”1 x 61”w x 65”h

Photo credit: Alison Nguyen


Installation view, Wallach Gallery, history as hypnosis V02, 2023, three-channel video, color, stereo sound, 32 minute loop; 42” monitors, monitor stand, metal seating. Right: Alison Nguyen, history as hauntology V.01, 2023, severed Seville, casters, dirt, electronic parts, LED lights, 109”1 x 61”w x 65”h.

Photo Credit: Alison Nguyen

Installation view, MIT List Visual Arts Center, List Projects 26: Alison Nguyen, 2023, history as hypnosis V01, three-channel video, color, stereo sound, 7’ x 4’x 1/8” aluminum panels, metal seating, colored light, 25 minute loop.

Photo Credit: Dario Lasagni



Exhibition view, op.cit. (CDMX), Confusion Technique, 2024. Top: Alison Nguyen,  history as hauntology (process), 2024, pigment print on metallic rag, 12”x 16” (framed); Bottom: Alison Nguyen, Glove compartment, 2024 Seville cigarette case, cinder blocks

Photo Credit: Lorena Mal


Image above: Installation view, Wallach Gallery, history as hypnosis V02, 2023, three-channel video, color, stereo sound, 32 minute loop; 42” monitors, monitor stand, metal seating. Right: Alison Nguyen, history as hauntology V.01, 2023, severed Seville, casters, dirt, electronic parts, LED lights, 109”1 x 61”w x 65”h.

Photo Credit: Alison Nguyen

Credits for history as hypnosis:
Director - Alison Nguyen
Executive Producers - Mustafa Zeno and D. S. Chun of Rug and Vase
Cinematographers - Sebastian Mylnarski and Mustafa Zeno
Production Designer - Heather Yancey
Writer - Alison Nguyen
Co-writer and co-producer - Zans Brady Krohn
Score - Scott Kiernan
Editor - Alison Nguyen
Sound Designer -  Jon Flores
Sound Consultant - Leslie Shatz
Colorist - Kevin Rattigan
Additional Music - Ivan Berko
Vocal Sound Designer and Recordist - A. M. DeVito
Post Production Assistant - Luke McCormick Gardiner
Field Producers - Nabil Elbehri and Bren Haragan
Hair and Makeup - Caroline Mills and Jeong-Hwa Fonkalsrud
Gaffers - Vince Jefferds and Jeremy Guico
Sound Mixers -  Amelia Palmer and Adrian Aiello
Wardrobe Assistants - Soha Sabouri and Anna McColley
Cast - Moriah Sittner, Andrea Clinton, Alison Nguyen, Julian Polys, Kakra Nunoo-Brown, Liz Rossi, Anastasiia Bannikova, Lauren Bell, Romeo Sanchez, Jacob Gorchov, Conor Dowdle

The artist would like to thank the Nguyen Family, Mustafa Zeno, Wes Adams, Justine Kurland, Sable Elyse Smith, Seth Cluett, Lien Nguyen, Yen Vu, Vy Lu, Luna Chun, Alejandra Avalos Guerrero, Heather Yancey, Maria Meinild, Abby Sun, Adam Milner, Robbie Rogers, Adelia Shiffraw, Michael Hernandez-Stern, op.cit., Bridge Props, Nice Shoes, BerksonFab, and James Shaf of  Let Go Color.





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